The news reports and the World Health Organization surveys (approximately 600 million in a year) validate that the ailments owing to food contamination and malnutrition have escalated to an all-time high. These have raised the outrage to regulate and optimize the food supply chain and global food distribution network.

You might have witnessed this fact that literally every intrinsic and complex issue that we hear in the world is predominantly caused by the fraudulent depiction of data. Data can be used to completely change and misrepresent the actual figures related to resources and its allocation. This is exactly what is happening to our global food production network.

The distribution system which should be highly focused towards inspection by promoting transparency is suffering badly in the hands of malpractitioner. The distribution network requires a fluid control of information during all the points of its travel from field to fork. The researchers are now making efforts to implement Blockchain technology in monitoring the food supply chain and its global distribution.

The IBM study

The study by the Institute for Business Value indicated that blockchain technology in the supply chain management of the food distribution can optimize the digital tracking of food throughout the journey. This made the purveyors to maintain quality as everything was easily monitored. The data was publicly displayed on the ledger and any attempt to disrupt the records was easily seized. As a result, the customers assured that they received quality products and were served better.

The frozen food risk

The surveyors mark that the frozen foods are at the highest risk of getting contaminated because as they go through multiple suppliers. The margin of its fallacy is much higher than any other food in the supply chain. Other ones are- the Ready to eat foods, which are processed through a long chain of suppliers and typically require a mediator to transport from one place to another. Most of the time the third party logistics services are taken by the companies for the food distribution.

Smart Contracts and Blockchains

Once Blockchain technology is implemented it can significantly ease the safety of the products by supplying and issuing quality assurances which will be authenticated by the consensus of Blockchain community. The smart contracts feature which is provided by Ethereum and other Blockchain developers is defined one of the best characteristics in terms of trading. The product will not move from one to stage to another or in fact, the payments will not be released until and unless all the conditions in the contracts are met.

Another great advantage leveraged by the Blockchain is the removal of intermediaries to objectify the information. The remittances are instant and significantly save the time. The transparency in all the levels can be a provenance of the affirmative food passed from farmer to wholesaler to consumer. The researchers from IBM Research are working together with Tsinghua University to provide transaction security and verification technology especially in relation to the Walmart’s supply chain and logistics and food safety.

Like many other people who favor Blockchain, we also hope and intent that soon this technology will be legitimized to change the corrupt practices.

Applancer is an open platform for discussion on all things like Blockchain , Cryptocurrency and Ico news updates. As such, the opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Applancer .